Morning News: Inside the World Trade Center’s New Observatory

Condé Nast Traveler got an exclusive preview of the One World Observatory, which opens atop One World Trade Center on May 29. The views, from as high as 1,250 feet above New York City, are spectacular. (Condé Nast Traveler)

Airbnb will make new tools available to property managers, in a move that could open up new vacation rental markets, The Wall Street Journal reports. Typically, property listings have to be adjusted one at a time, WSJ says, and the new tools will allow Airbnb to “broaden its reach beyond city dwellers into far-flung vacation sites like ski resorts and beachfront properties, putting it more squarely in competition with vacation rental networks like HomeAway.” In April, when Airbnb launched Cuba rentals, the company acknowledged that it already had the capability to let “hosting partners” manage individual listings. (WSJ and Condé Nast Traveler)

The world’s largest hotel could open in Mecca by 2017. The $3.5 billion project will have 10,000 rooms, 12 helipads, 70 restaurants, and plenty of other features. (Condé Nast Traveler)

Most travelers aren’t letting the price of gas determine whether or not they’ll take a summer road trip, a GasBuddy survey says, with 58% saying “that gas prices do not impact their vacations plans.” The price-tracking service says “the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is currently $2.715.” That’s higher than recent prices but still well below what fuel cost on average over the past several years. (GasBuddy)

The three major New York City-area airports are the worst for summer travel delays, a new analysis of Department of Transportation data shows. MileCards.com looked at a decade’s worth of data to determine that only about two in three arrivals were on time at JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty during the summer months. By contrast, Honolulu (87.7%), Phoenix (81.5%), and Salt Lake City (84.9%) had the best on-time performance. (MileCards.com)

A reporter who tried Beacon, one of a number of upstart “subscription flight service[s]” providing semi-private aviation, says one major downside of flying a six-passenger Pilatus PC-12 is that turbulence can be nauseating. (Finish your breakfast before reading.) (BuzzFeed)

The Norwegian Dawn ran aground off Bermuda, but there were no reported injuries. (NBC)

Delta may be trialing an aromatherapy program in Atlanta to add a little tranquility to the boarding process. (TravelSkills)

A new hotel brand, Zoku, claims it will reinvent the lodging industry by moving the bed into a hidden loft space and making the living area the focal point of the room. Maybe! (HotelChatter)